Consultation offers 12 visions of future for Leeds Kirkgate Market

They're not quite the
labours of Hercules, but council asks public to have say on a dozen key points, while traders complain of lack of real progress.
John Baron reports on a famous source of food, flowers, clothes and anything else that money can buy

A lovely place but with lots of challenges. Among other things, Leeds' Kirkgate Market is too hot in summer and too cold in winter. Photograph: Christopher Thomond for the Guardian
Christopher Thomond
Christopher Thomond
/Guardian

Traders have claimed a lack of investment and forward planning from landlords Leeds city council, while council chiefs point to a hefty repair bill for the aging facilities and a move by shoppers away such traditional markets and towards the supermarket.

Now the council is asking for shoppers' comments on 12 possible improvements that could contribute to shaping the future of the market, restoring it to its former glory and increasing the number of people who use it.

Earlier this year the council, along with property, design and management consultants NPS Group, asked people for their views on how the council should improve the market.

These views have been considered by council official and the NPS Group has identified 12 key elements which they believe could improve the market. These are:

Fixing the basic structural problems the market buildings face

Replacing the leaking roofs of the 1976 and 1981 halls

Installing heating and cooling - the market's too hot in summer and too cold in winter

Finding your way round, including maps and more/better signs

Creating zones, such as combining the butchers row with fish and game, or something similar with fruit, veg and flowers or clothing and textiles.

Creating a heart to the market, possibly with a new central events, performance and display area

Creating a new route through the market to help shoppers find their way round

Rationalising the layout of the stalls to make the market easier to navigate around

Improving the look and feel of the market

Reducing the size, either by reorganising the space internally and taking out some stalls or by reducing the actual size of the market buildings. One possibility would see the demolition of the 1976 and 1981 halls and moving the existing open market to the existing buildings.

Improving George Street - by demolishing the existing 1930s single storey building down the side of the market, replacing it with a new building which would house stalls but also have small shop fronts looking out onto George Street - and phase one of the new Eastgate development opposite.

Improving public open space where people can sit, possibly with a dedicated space for events and music.

Endless variety and keen prices are hallmarks of the market. Photograph: John Baron/guardian.co.uk

At a press conference at the Marriott Hotel in Boar Lane yesterday, Councillor Richard Lewis said 'doing nothing' wasn't an option. He said that in the early 1980s more people started to use supermarkets for their shopping and that this move away from markets had hit Leeds as much an anywhere else in the country.

He said it was important to address the structural problems of the buildings, such as leaking roofs, and to take advantage that the Eastgate development to one side of the market and the revamp of historic Kirkgate at the other would bring to the area.

We have no hidden agenda. Absolutely nothing has been decided by the council regarding the market's future other than we want to make it the best market in Britain. This is a genuinely open public consultation. We don't want to turn it into a yuppified area for people who want to buy sundried tomatoes and pesto.

Coun Lewis said that there had been investment over the past 20 years but that the council was more guilty of 'not coming up with coherent story about what we are doing.

He also stressed the need to tackle the antipathy between traders frustrated at what they believe is a lack of investment and forward planning for the market and their council landlords.

He said he wanted to come up with a management model which would involve traders in the decision making process, although he stressed the market would remain in council control.

We have taken what people said in the engagement process earlier in the year and fed this into the 12 elements that are now being presented. Some changes are needed to make sure the market buildings are up to date and will last many more years. But the purpose of the changes is to make the market a a welcoming and attractive place to shop, visit and spend time in.

In the short term the council cannot afford to resolve all those issues in one go, therefore it is important that we know which issues feel are important to tackle first.

The thorny issue of traders' rents was also raised at the press conference. Traders fear the rents are too high and have been calling for a reduction, but Coun Lewis said rents had been held at the same level for five years. Markets champion Coun Gerry Harper added that if rents had gone up in line with inflation, they would have been 20% higher than they are now.

The public feedback will shape a crunch report which is due to go before the council's decision-making executive board next year. Go to www.leedsmarkets.co.uk/strategy to have your say on the consultation. A stall in the 1976 market will also have all the details.

You can these there too. Photograph: Image Source/Getty Images Image Source/Getty Images/Image Source

Speaking after the press conference, market traders spoke of their frustration at what they said was a lack of progress.

Michelle Hocken, who helps run Hayes Seafood and is vice-chair of the Leeds branch of the National Market Traders Federation, said there had been three sets of research into the future of the market over the past three years costing in the region of £170,000 'and we're still no further forward'.

Many traders will be disappointed about this latest consultation - we've been saying a lot of it for years. They didn't need all this consultation and they've still not got any definite proposals. The money would have been better off being ploughed into the market.

Fellow trader Liz Laughton challenged the councillors to put rents up 20% and 'let them see how viable their business is'. She added: